Losing Bangalore's Shade

It’s been really long, in fact more than a few years since I have been planning to visit LalBagh, the central park of Bangalore. I have been somehow postponing it because of one or the other chore that kept cropping up unexpectedly or not so unexpectedly. The Lalbagh visit always used to take a back seat because of two reasons. Firstly I am not located close to Lalbagh and have to beat the notorious B’lore traffic to get there. Secondly but more importantly, Lalbagh wasn’t going anywhere, so I could have made my plans any day. But to my horror, I realized that even Lalbagh was not supposed to remain the same!!

I am a lazy citizen so all I do is follow news and sometimes if time and energy permit, pen my views. I have been following news articles here and there – the petitions and protests – the misquoted number of trees to be felled. To me it really paints an insensitive picture of our sensitivity towards our heritage.

There are many ‘fors’ for the trees to be cut, be at Lalbagh, KR Road, Nanda Road or any other place, now that Bangalore needs infrastructure(years after the IT and real estate boom!) .After all the trees have to pave the way for human development. We need wider roads, flyovers and we need metros and monorails…but probably we don't need clean air, water, rains! Why is it that as the number of roads in Blore has been increasing so has been the number of pot-holes and bad, broken roads? Why is there a mindset that only flyovers everywhere will result in smooth traffic? Yes flyovers may be necessary probably at some places, but what about all the other places that one has to travel through to reach one’s destination. Is the government planning to cut all the trees lined up on the road side? – After all the whole city is congested.

Just stating the obvious - the government has let the city grow in a highly unplanned way. Bangalore, the land of opportunities, has been growing disproportionately for years now – but it still continues to do so - that’s the sad part - of course not the ‘growth’, but the ‘proportion being wrong’! It’s all haywire. I go to a residential block and all I find is a few houses in the midst of software companies and shops and not to forget cafes and eating joints. Vehicles parked everywhere, autos blocking most part of the roads and as if that was not enough, buses blocking the rest. And then there is huge line of daily commuters honking profusely to go from one part of the city to the other.

There’s no doubt that we need a concept of self-contained and self-sufficient satellite townships to beat the activity buzz at one central place. And then connect all these satellite towns using the much hyped metro. I think the structure and the culture of our city don’t ask for a metro cutting through the MG road, Ulsoor, CMH road. These places are already connected well – short distances well suited to travel by auto/ bus and for the more enthusiastic, on bicycles. Moreover, these are not just ‘places’ such as AIIMS/Lajpat nagar/Sarojini Nagar that Delhi (which now boast of the word class metro) has. These places for Bangalore are its culture, its identity, its way of giving that warm welcome to people under its shaded pathways. These places make the city alive - those leisured walks at the MG road arcade, the buzz of the city at CMH road and the dust-free Indiranagar… all compromised for the time being and also long times to come(we all know how the government works). What we could have done was let the heart of the city remain the same and cut those commuters who travel across the city. Connect the far flung areas through the metro. Such fast public transport should be like a ring supported by the short-distance public carriers. Of course I am not qualified enough to give an expert’s comment…but I need to voice the thought process which keeps on getting triggered seeing the plight of our flora.
Marring nature or disturbing the ecological balance has long lasting and quick effects. We Bangaloreans know that and we cant deny that as we are already experiencing the effects. After all trees that are mute can be felled but the effects will be way too loud for us!

Electing a change!

It’s that time of the year which comes after every five years – sometimes earlier though – its election time. We are getting bombarded from all directions for one thing that is good – to exercise the right to vote and the other that is not so good - hearing our politicians roaring all over, going ga-ga over their not-so-visible achievements. May it be television, newspapers or road-side hoardings – they are there everywhere like weeds in an abandoned garden.
So how do we contribute to elections – the obvious answer is by voting! I still remember the carefree days of childhood when elections meant a lot of movies along with the election bulletins – just covering the counting of votes and announcing of results.

Yes we need to vote undoubtedly – after all we are a part of educated India – so we need to at the very least vote-for if not get voted-by! How we have to be reminded to exercise our duties (infact it's a right!) while the onus on us is far more than that. But we are too lazy or say just ignorant of the change we should be bringing. Or are we Indians averse of taking risks? I don't think it falls in the class of being lazy – it’s being cautious probably. Cautious of what we might land into if try to bring about a change – if we try making people hear us – because we are not sure of the people who will be listening to us.
So, the question is do we know if we as people are listening to the right people? Do we have the correct choice to choose from? Or is it that ‘if not this one then that one’. Of course, we can always complain that we don't have good leadership we can rely on. But what did we do the past five years – we were so busy either earning money or paying taxes or going through the daily grind of traffic/road congestions/rising prices/loan interests/sky-rocketing school fees/melting economy to top it all. So the past five years just flew by and we never gave even a slightest thought if we can bring about a change! And because the five years just went by – we are not sure of the upcoming five years. Voting is no doubt the thing to do – but does it end here? Just by voting we may not ‘ensure’ a difference – as we are the elite educated India – and obviously elite means less in number.